The enjoyment and utilization of digital content can take many forms. Traditional methods often involve the generation of hardcopy prints and arranging them in a photo album to be shared with others. With the growing availability and popularity of softcopy displays to view digital content, new methods of digital content utilization have emerged. Multimedia presentations are a popular new method of viewing digital content and reliving memories.
Multimedia presentations offer a much richer experience than viewing photo prints or watching the sequential display of digital images on a softcopy display. These presentations provide consumers a wide variety of creative mechanisms that can be employed to generate interesting and compelling multimedia experiences. The generation of presentations involves the selection of digital content records (also referred to herein as “assets”), the display sequence of the digital content records, and presentation effects. Presentation effects include a wide variety of visual and auditory techniques that provide a richer, more interesting experience. Software programs like Microsoft™ Powerpoint™ offer presentation effects that include, for example, presentation transitions that visually or audibly transition between displayed assets.
Many types of presentation transitions currently exist, including various forms of dissolves, fades, wipes, movements, sound effects, and presentation durations each providing a different experience that can enhance the overall presentation. In addition, each type of presentation transition often has associated parameters that adjust how the presentation transition is implemented and with what level of magnitude it is implemented. For example, parameters for a movement transition may indicate a direction of movement of an asset, as well how fast the asset moves, thereby indicating its velocity magnitude. However, the sheer quantity of available presentation transition types and their associated parameters can be overwhelming for the consumer generating the presentation.
One of the types of presentation transitions employed in multimedia presentations is the presentation duration for particular assets. Consumers can vary the length of time an asset is displayed, i.e., can vary the presentation duration's magnitude, to affect the pace of the presentation and to enhance its overall quality. However, specifying a presentation duration for individual assets can be time consuming and tedious, especially for long presentations.
Accordingly, a need in the art exists for an improved way to generate presentation effects for digital content record presentations.